NYS Board of Elections Should Ensure Colleges Have Onsite Polling Locations

Andrew Goodman Foundation
Citizens Union
Common Cause/NY
Generation Vote
League of Women Voters of New York State
New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG)
Reinvent Albany

July 24, 2024

Henry T. Berger, Co-Chair, NYS Board of Elections
Peter S. Kosinski, Co-Chair, NYS Board of Elections
Essma Bagnuola, Commissioner, NYS Board of Elections
Anthony J. Casale, Commissioner, NYS Board of Elections
Kristen Zebrowski Stavisky, Co-Executive Director, NYS Board of Elections
Raymond J. Riley III, Co-Executive Director, NYS Board of Elections

New York State Board of Elections
40 North Pearl Street, Suite 5
Albany, NY 12207-2729

Dear Commissioners and Co-Executive Directors of the New York State Board of Elections:

This letter is a follow up to the one we sent to you this past Spring.  As you know, our organizations are concerned with youth voter participation and we wrote urging the Board to review polling locations to ensure that all covered colleges have polling locations placed on campus for the upcoming General Election.

In our original letter, we included an analysis conducted by NYPIRG that showed some number of colleges in the state do not have on-campus poll sites even though many have a significant number of students living on campus.  We argued at that time that the survey’s findings raised important questions and we urged the Board to investigate to ensure that the rights of young voters registered in their college communities are being protected under the law.  

As you are now on the cusp of releasing the locations of polling sites for the General Election, we once again urge that you ensure that colleges that should have such sites placed on college campuses are, in fact, placed there in accordance with state law.

We look forward to working with you to ensure that college students are adequately empowered to vote.  

Sincerely,

Rashawn Davis, Andrew Goodman Foundation
Ben Weinberg, Citizens Union
Susan Lerner, Common Cause/NY
Brendan Cushing, Generation Vote
Erica Smitka, League of Women Voters of New York State
Blair Horner, NYPIRG
John Kaehny, Reinvent Albany

cc: State Senator Zellnor Myrie
State Senator Kevin Parker
State Assemblymember Latrice Walker
State Assemblymember Nily Rozic
Liz Fine, Counsel to the Governor
Terry Pratt, Assistant Counsel to the Governor

Click here or below to see the full letter.